Files that preview as a document

Dropbox previews .pdf documents in their native format. In addition, the following formats are converted to .pdf for previews:

.doc and .docx

.ppt and .pptx

.pps and .ppsx

.rtf

Note: Previews for the formats listed above can't be shown for files greater than 20 MB. Previews also can't be shown if the file is corrupt or the .pdf conversion process takes too long.

The following text and code formats are supported:

.markdown

.mdown

.mkdn

.md

.c

.coffee

.cpp

.css

.diff

.js

.java

.less

.php

.py

.rb

.sass

.scss

.sql

.vb

.htm

.html

.xhtml

.xml

.sh

.txt

Note: Previews for text and code files can't be shown if they're greater than 4 MB.

Files that preview as an image

.jpg and .jpeg

.png

.tiff and .tif

.gif

.bmp

.ai

.psd

Files that preview as a video

Please note that when you create a link to a video in your Dropbox you will be able to watch the full video, and anyone you share the link with will be able to view the first fifteen minutes on a preview page. In order to view the full length of the shared video, recipients will need to download the file to their computer.

.3gp

.3gpp

.3gpp2

.avi

.mov

.mp4

.wmv

.m4v

.mpg

.mkv

.mpeg

.vob

.flv

.mts

.m2t

.ts

.dv

Note: Any files that are password-protected can't be previewed.

We add to this list frequently. Feel free to check back here occasionally for your favorite file formats.

For our advanced users

File names incompatible with other operating systems

Dropbox won't sync files that are incompatible with other operating systems. In many cases, all that is needed to make the file compatible is simply changing the name. To find out what files aren't syncing to your other computers, check Bad Files Check or read more on file incompatibility.

A warning regarding metadata and FAT32 drives

Some documents have file attributes, or xattrs, in data attached to the file. We call this data metadata. Operating systems use metadata for many different ways: storing the icon, labeling your documents, attaching information to the file, permissions, etc... Dropbox supports xattrs on all platforms. However, thumb drives and portable drives that use the FAT32 file system do not support metadata. If your Dropbox folder is on a FAT32 drive, unfortunately it is impossible to retain metadata when the file is moved or renamed.

Turning on xattr support in Linux

Some Linux distributions have xattrs turned off by default. If you are running a Linux distribution with an ext3 or ext4 file system, it is possible to turn on xattr support, typically through your /etc/fstab settings file. Please refer to your Linux distribution's documentation for instructions.